the word 'said'

No, it should be, "I'm not going," Jack said absently.

Vivace, first of all, welcome!

You can use either form you like, as long as you're consistent within your own text. But, to answer your question more appropriately, I almost always read "Jack said."

Siddow said:

No, it should be, "I'm not going," Jack said absently.

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I disagree. I think "I'm not going!” (shouts his point) or "I'm not going, so there." (Punctuated emphatically) or "I'm not going." is sufficient unless we don't know who is talking.

Dialogue tags shouldn't verbalize what is best done through action, as in words spoken. "You basket-case clown." she said. The tone of her voice and how she delivered the message is enough for the reader to understand how she feels (by showing) and we don't need to add additional verbiage to (tell) the reader how she felt.

Show is always more powerful in writing than telling.

Good luck,

I looked through a few nearby books and it seemed to support my vote for 'said Jack'.

Unless you checked "Self-Editing for Fiction Writers" which says that 'Jack said' is more appropriate for this century. Would you say 'said I' or 'I said'? Insert name in place of 'I'.

So either or. LOL. I use 'Jack said' personally, when the need for a dialogue tag arises.

I have to say, Jack said.

Watch adding too many tacky tags to your said. Said angrily, with malice, spat, and any other tag you can think of. Or, at least few and far between. The exception being children's writing, which has more tags to help the kids with the emotions, and I've noticed some of the U.K. publishers are tolerating more tags. The Potter books are full of tags that eat me up, but they are kid's books.

Why not: When Sally finished her diatribe, Jack saw his chance to jump into the conversation. "Are you finished, Sally." Now we know Jack said this without a, Jack said. "Yes, Jack." and we know Sally answered.

And, look at the more current novels on your bookshelf. They should give you a grand idea of what is being accepted in the market at this time.

SpookyWriter said:

I disagree.

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Sorry. Should have added 'just joking!'

I never was very good at humor.

Siddow said:

Sorry. Should have added 'just joking!'
I never was very good at humor.

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I figured you were joking, because the only alternative was that you were insane....

I used "said Jim" and "Jim said" both. It depends on the circumstances. I'm more likely to use "Jim said," because the verb follows the subject. You wouldn't say "swung hammer" would you? No.

I still use both, though...

Siddow said:

Sorry. Should have added 'just joking!'

I never was very good at humor.

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No need to apologize. Humor is difficult to grasp when trying to be seriously funny.

Spooky tends to be a very grim and serious person in general, so humor is something new to him. Be gentle, he's trying.

I'd go with "Jack said." It fits the simplest sentence structure: Subject followed by verb, instead of vice versa.

The key is probably just consistency. Pick the one that sounds better to you, and stick to it, unless you've got a good reason to change it in any given instance. I suspect it would only be irritating to the reader if you used both structures randomly.

JD

I see "Jack said" more frequently, but "said Jack" wouldn't bother me or freak me out.

Spooky's got a point about not overusing dialogue tags, but sometimes, you really do need one.

Actually after looking at my own latest manuscript I find I use 'Jack said'--I hadn't even realised.

Heinlein and Asimov are good examples of this, because they don't use a lot of dialogue tags. If you have two people talking, just make sure we know who's saying what. Remind us now and again. Dont' use it every sentence.

"What?" said John.
"I was telling you about my sister." Sara said.
"What for?" John said.
"Because you asked." Sara said.

.........snooooooze.....

(although I should hope your dialogue is more interesting than THAT.)

Now this is actually something I never even thought about before. After checking my book I find I tend to use "said Jack."

Ah ha! That is the reason for the rejections. Whew, an easy fix. (LOL).

Seriously, I wonder if I should change them...

If you replace the name with HE or SHE, then take a look, you'll see a distinct difference in how each version feels:

"I'm not going," he said.

"I'm not going," said he.

The second is far more stiff and formal and feels like an older writing style to me, a la the era of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

I'm of the consistency school, so if you are going to use HE and SHE a lot in your dialogue tags (and you should ... using the character's names constantly is something to avoid), you should decide on which feel you want to convey throughout the work. If your book is modern, with current colloquialisms in the dialogue, using 'said he' will be jarring:

"Yo, bubba. Bite me, dickweed," said he.

Nope, just doesn't feel right. Whereas:

"Yo, bubba. Bite me, dickweed," he said.

Here the tag is less intrusive, which is what you want.

If it's contemporary, use "he said." The only time when you might consider using "said he" would be something like:

"I'm not going to say anything," said he who would never shut up.

I don't believe it matters. Most of the time, a reader just scans over the word "said", not really analyzing it. It's just to illustrate who is talking and, accompanied by good dialogue or a decent adjective, how it is said.

ChunkyC said:

"Yo, bubba. Bite me, dickweed," said he.

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Now THAT is funny.

veinglory said:

Actually after looking at my own latest manuscript I find I use 'Jack said'--I hadn't even realised.

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But from your speech, I'd take you for either a Brit or Canadian. It's really realized in the states and we tend to place more emphasis on the verd "said" than pronoun (objective case) when including a dialogue tag. Or was that the other way around? Hmmm...

maestrowork said:

"I'm not going to say anything," said he who would never shut up.

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I can't agree with the usage of a [verb] [pronoun] construction as described because "he who would never shut up" confuses the speaker and narrator here.

Exception

"Somebody must have left this on the bench," said a man holding up a brown canvas bag that looked like the one Eric usually carried his art supplies in when he went to figure-drawing sessions, except that the straps were different.